Bingo is one of the most prevalent forms of gaming across the United States. In the United States it is organized by, among others, charity groups and Native American tribes that operate casinos or gambling parlors. Bingo may be played using electronic devices or in its non-electronic form which has existed for several years. In the typical non-electronic form each player purchases at least one bingo card (but often more than one card) that is good for a specified ball draw or bingo session, e.g., the nine o'clock session. Each session typically has a plurality of bingo games and each bingo game comprises a drawing of bingo balls. Each drawing uses a predetermined number of bingo balls, typically seventy-five. The typical bingo card is a 5×5 matrix where each column is identified by a letter, B-I-N-G-O, and at each coordinate or space in the matrix a number is provided. Typically, the “B” column contains numbers ranging from one to fifteen, the “I” column contains numbers ranging from sixteen to thirty and so on. As balls are drawn, the number of the ball is called out and the players determine if their card(s) has the drawn ball. If a player's card(s) has the drawn ball, the player will daub the spot on his card(s) corresponding to the drawn ball. Daubing is often accomplished in the non-electronic game by the use of a special ink marker, but players may use other means to record the selection of a ball on their card(s), including placing an object such as a coin or bean on the spot.
In each bingo game there are one or more patterns that, when completed, will entitle the player who completed one or more of the designated patterns to a prize and that may or may not end the bingo game. A wide variety of patterns have been used in these games. A “simple” pattern may be any horizontal line of five daubed spots. However, there is virtually no limit to the number or complexity of patterns that may be used. For instance, the pattern could be a “kite” which is defined as a four daubs in a square pattern with two daubs in a diagonal line and diagonally touching a point of the square to form the “kite's tail.” Thus, the players of the bingo game are competing with each other to complete one or more of the designated patterns. Often, only the first player to complete each pattern is awarded the prize associated with the pattern. In addition to varying the pattern that is used, bingo games may vary the size of the matrix used or the number of bingo balls that are used to provide additional variety and excitement to the game.
Electronic bingo games operate in much the same way as non-electronic games with a few differences. The most notable difference between electronic bingo and non-electronic bingo is that the electronic bingo balls are drawn much faster and microprocessors are used to determine if a player's bingo card contains a spot that matches a drawn ball. As a result, the players do not daub balls individually. Rather, the player's electronic device or gaming terminal that is being used to play bingo will automatically daub multiple balls for the player at the touch of a button. Thus, it is no longer up to the player to watch the ball draw and determine if any of the balls drawn appear on the player's bingo card. With this electronic setup, all balls drawn that appear on a player's card are either instantly daubed as soon as the ball is drawn or a player may periodically hit a daub button to update multiple balls on his card at once. The ability to draw balls quicker and to almost instantaneously automatically daub spots that match the drawn balls allows players of electronic bingo to play many more bingo games in a given amount of time than they could playing non-electronic bingo. Also, because a computer or other electronic device is used to monitor the bingo game, far more complex bingo patterns can be used than in non-electronic bingo games.
These differences between electronic bingo and non-electronic bingo have led to electronic bingo terminals that display, in addition to a bingo card, other entertaining graphics to the player. The most successful such devices display what appears to be a slot machine like those used in Las Vegas to display a winning outcome during the play of a bingo game. These bingo terminals often determine the amount of a player's win for a winning outcome, if any, based on one or more of the following criteria: the number of players playing the game, the number of balls it took the player to complete a pattern and the specific pattern completed. Once the amount of the win is determined, the portion of the terminal resembling a slot machine is then used to display a combination of slot machine symbols that would correspond to the determined amount. Thus, the basic game being played is a multi-player bingo game that includes a slot machine display of winning outcomes, giving each player the perception that he is playing a slot machine.
In the non-electronic form of bingo described above, the player uses a certain amount of skill to recognize that his bingo card or cards contain a spot matching a drawn ball and to daub the spots corresponding to that ball in the time before the next ball is drawn, although there is typically no time limit placed on how quickly a spot must be daubed. Because there is no additional cost associated with daubing a spot and because there is no penalty involved with daubing a spot that is subsequently not used to complete a bingo pattern, the player will, if he is able, daub every possible spot that he can. Thus the amount of player interaction in non-electronic bingo is very limited. In electronic bingo, a computer determines whether a player's card has a spot that matches or concords with any drawn balls. And for the same reasons as those discussed in non-electronic bingo, there has never been a need in the electronic form of bingo described above to allow a player to daub some spots but not others. As a result, the level of player interaction in electronic bingo is even less than in non-electronic bingo and the level of competition between players is also reduced.